Muscle types

M.N.V. Gwedela, PhD

Biomedical Sciences Department
KUHES
 Learning objectives

 List the common functions of muscle

 Explain the four properties of muscle
 Contrast skeletal, cardiac, and smooth
muscle
 Explain the differences between contractile
and autorhythmic cardiac muscle cells
 Describe the two types of smooth muscle
 Introduction

 Muscle is defined as a tissue primarily

composed of specialized cells/fibers which
are capable of contracting in order to effect
movement
 Have two common functions:
 To generate motion
 To generate force
 Skeletal muscles also generate heat
 Properties of muscles
 Electrical excitability:
the ability to respond to
certain stimuli by
producing action
potentials
 Contractility: the ability to
contract forcefully when
stimulated by a nerve
impulse
 Extensibility: the ability to
stretch, within limits,
without being damaged
 Elasticity: the ability of
muscular tissue to return
to its original length and
shape after contraction or
extension https://www.purposegames.com/game/properties-of-muscle
 Structure of muscle tissue
 Regardless of its morphology
or type, muscle tissue is
composed of specialized cells
known as muscle cells/fibres or
myocytes
 Myocytes have protein
filaments (actin and myosin)
that slide past one another,
producing contractions that
move body parts, including
internal organs
 Also found as cytoskeletal
elements in many cell types
 In myocytes, actin and myosin
filaments are generally oriented
along a single axis, thereby
eliciting linear movement
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep11894
 Striated vs non-striated muscle
 At its most basic level,
muscle tissue is
classified as either
striated or non-
striated/smooth
 based on the presence
or absence of ‘striations’
(i.e. stripes/furrows) seen
at a microscopic level
 these are formed due to
a particular arrangement
of actin and myosin
filaments within the
myocyte https://classnotes123.com/differentiate-between-striated-smooth-and-cardiac-
muscles-on-the-basis-of-their-structure-and-site-location-in-the-body/
 Skeletal
muscle
 Makes up about
40% of body weight
 Responsible for
positioning and
movement of the
skeleton
 Mostly attached to
the bones
 Can only contract in
response to a signal
from a somatic motor
neuron Tortora & Grabowski. (2020). Principles of Anatomy and Physiology. 16th ed.
 Skeletal
muscle
 Makes up about
40% of body weight
 Responsible for
positioning and
movement of the
skeleton
 Mostly attached to
the bones
 Can only contract in
response to a signal
from a somatic motor
neuron Tortora & Grabowski. (2020). Principles of Anatomy and Physiology. 16th ed.
 Skeletal muscle
 If the centres of the
connected bones are
brought closer together
when muscles contract,
the muscle is called a
flexor
 If the bones move
away from each other
when the muscle
contracts, the muscle is
called an extensor
 Flexor and extensor
pairs are called
antagonistic muscle
groups
 Skeletal muscle
 Skeletal muscles
are composed of
numerous fibers
ranging from 10 to
80 micrometers in
diameter.
 The cell membrane
of a muscle fibre is
the sarcolemma
 Each of these fibers
is made up of
successively
smaller subunits Guyton & Hall. (2021). Medical Physiology. 14th ed.
 Skeletal muscle
 Each muscle fiber
contains several
hundred to several
thousand myofibrils
 Each myofibril is
composed of several
types of proteins
 Contractile proteins
myosin (thick, about
1500) and actin (thin,
about 3000)
 Regulatory proteins
tropomyosin and
troponin
 Giant accessory proteins
titin and nebulin Guyton & Hall. (2021). Medical Physiology. 14th ed.
 Skeletal muscle
 Spaces between the
myofibrils are filled
with intracellular fluid
called sarcoplasm
 An extensive
sarcoplasmic
reticulum (SR) wraps
around each myofibril
 consists of longitudinal
tubules which release
Ca2+, and the terminal
cisternae which
concentrate and
sequester Ca2+
Silverthorn. (2019). Human Physiology: an integrated approach. 8th ed.
 Skeletal muscle
 Myosin and actin filaments
partially interdigitate and
thus cause the myofibrils to
have alternate light and
dark bands
 The light bands contain only
actin filaments and are called
I bands because they are
isotropic to polarized light.
 The dark bands contain
myosin filaments and the
ends of the actin filaments
and are called A bands
because they are anisotropic https://www.physio-pedia.com/Sarcomere
to polarized light
 Striated appearance
 Skeletal muscle
 The ends of the
actin filaments
are attached to a
Z disk.
 The portion of the
myofibril (or of
the whole muscle
fiber) that lies
between two
successive Z
disks is called a
sarcomere
 Basic contractile
unit
 Skeletal muscle
 The proper alignment within a
sarcomere is ensured by titin
and nebulin
 Titin
 a huge elastic molecule and
largest protein known
 stabilizes the position of
contractile filaments, and its
elasticity returns stretched
muscle to their resting length
 Nebulin
 an inelastic giant protein that lies
alongside thin filaments and
attaches to the Z disk
 helps align the actin filaments of
the sarcomere https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2010/968139/
 Skeletal muscle
 Actin filaments are composed of two helical strands of F-
actin molecules and two strands of tropomyosin molecules
 In the resting state, the tropomyosin molecules lie on top of
the active sites of the actin strands, preventing cross-bridge
formation between actin and myosin

Guyton & Hall. (2021). Medical Physiology. 14th ed.

 Skeletal muscle
 Attached intermittently along the sides of the tropomyosin
molecules are additional protein molecules called troponin
 Made of three loosely bound protein subunits
 troponin I has a strong affinity for actin
 troponin T has a strong affinity for tropomyosin
 troponin C has a binds Ca2+
 Cardiac muscle
 The bulk of the heart is
composed of cardiac
muscle or myocardium
 Cardiomyocytes are the
individual cells that make
up the cardiac muscle
 Like skeletal muscle,
contractile cardiac muscle
is striated and hence is
composed of similar
contractile proteins which
are also structurally
arranged into sarcomeres
Guyton & Hall. (2021). Medical Physiology. 14th ed.
 Cardiac muscle
 Neighbouring
cardiomyocytes are
joined together at
their ends by
intercalated disks to
create a syncytium of
cardiac cells.
 Atrial syncytium
 Ventricular syncytium

Guyton & Hall. (2021). Medical Physiology. 14th ed.

 Cardiac muscle
 Within the intercalated
disc, there are three
different types of cell
junctions:
 Fascia adherens: anchors
actin filaments
 Desmosomes: anchors
ends of myocytes together
and allow force created in
one cell to be transferred
to the adjacent cell
 Gap junctions: rapid
diffusion of ions for fast
depolarization of
myocardial cells, allowing
them to contract almost
simultaneously
https://www.flickr.com/photos/187096960@N06/51172480067
 Cardiac muscle

Desmosomes Gap junctions

 Cardiac muscle
 Most cardiac muscle
is contractile but 1%
are specialized to
generate action
potential
spontaneously
(autorhythmic aka
pacemaker cells)
 Responsible for the
heart to contract
without any outside
signal (myogenic)
 Cardiac muscle
 Pacemaker cells are small and have few
contractile fibres with no organized sarcomeres
 Do not contribute to contractile force of the heart
 Smooth muscle
 Mostly found in the walls of hollow
organs & tubes where its
contraction will change the shape
of the organ
 Generate force to move material
through the lumen of the organ
 They develop tension slower than
in striated muscle but can sustain
contractions for extended periods
without fatiguing
 Some smooth muscle are tonically
contracted and maintain tension at
most times (e.g esophageal and
 Smooth muscle
 Smooth muscle cells are small,
spindle-shaped cells with one
central nucleus, and lack the
coarse connective tissue
coverings of skeletal muscle.
 They are usually arranged into
sheets of opposing fibres,
forming a longitudinal layer and
a circular layer.
 Contraction of the opposing
layers of muscle leads to a
rhythmic form of contraction,
called peristalsis, which propels
substances through the organs. Tortora & Grabowski. (2020). Principles of Anatomy and Physiology. 16 th ed.
 Smooth muscle
 Smooth muscle cells have a
less developed sarcoplasmic
reticulum
 sequester Ca2+ in ECF within
caveolae in the cell membrane.
 They have no striations, no
sarcomeres, a lower ratio of
thick to thin filaments when
compared to skeletal muscle,
and have tropomyosin but
not troponin.
 They contain longitudinal
bundles of non-contractile
intermediate filaments
anchored to the sarcolemma
and surrounding tissues via
dense bodies.
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Transcriptional-control-mechanisms-in-the-wall-of-
Zhu/99621d58522f8c3db9eba8839f3936a5863d30db
 Smooth muscle
 Smooth muscles
lack
neuromuscular
junctions, but
have varicosities
instead,
numerous
bulbous swellings
that release
neurotransmitters
to a wide synaptic
cleft. https://www.bio.miami.edu/dana/360/360F19_15a.html
 Smooth muscle

 The smooth muscle of each organ is

distinctive from that of most other organs in
several ways:
 Physical dimensions
 Organization into bundles or sheets
 Response to different types of stimuli
 Characteristics of innervation
 Function
 Types of smooth muscle
 Multi-unit smooth muscle
 Consists of cells that are
structurally independent of each
other
 Has motor units
 Is capable of graded
contractions
 E.g. ciliary muscle of the eye,
the iris muscle of the eye,
piloerector muscles
 Controlled mainly by
autonomous nervous system
 influenced by hormones
 stretching does not induce
contraction
 Has many functions similar to
 Types of smooth muscle
 Unitary (or single-unit)
smooth muscle
 Aka visceral/syncytial muscle
 Is the most common type of
smooth muscle.
 Contracts rhythmically as a unit
 Contracts rhythmically due to
automaticity of myogenic origin
 AP originates from pacemaker
cells that show slow spontaneous
depolarisation – pacemaker
potential
 Is electrically coupled by gap
junctions, and exhibits
spontaneous action potentials.
Types of smooth muscle
Summary

Tortora & Grabowski. (2020). Principles of Anatomy and Physiology. 16 th ed.

Summary

Tortora & Grabowski. (2020). Principles of Anatomy and Physiology. 16 th ed.